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Over the years Cyprien's Bio cited degree
LOUISIANA La. — UL was not the only university that believed Glynn Cyprien’s claim of a bachelor’s degree from Texas-San Antonio.
The Ragin’ Cajun basketball coach was terminated by the university Friday after it was discovered that Cyprien did not possess a degree from an accredited four-year university. His resume’ and the official university biography from his May hiring claimed a bachelor’s degree from Texas-San Antonio.
An employee of the UTSA registrar’s office said Friday that Cyprien attended the Texas university from 1987 to 1990 but did not earn a degree.
“We were told that another resume’ was later sent that did not list that degree,” said UL Lafayette athletic director Nelson Schexnayder. “But we have no record of that and we relied on the first resume’ when we hired him.”
Biographies obtained from the other five universities where the New Orleans native had served on basketball staffs also listed a degree from UTSA in his educational background.
Cyprien, hired by UL Lafayette in May, had previously coached for four years at Oklahoma State and prior to that had served on the staffs at Nevada-Las Vegas, Western Kentucky, Jacksonville and Lamar.
OSU’s official biography prior to the 2003-04 basketball season listed a bachelor’s degree in education from UTSA in 1990 and a master’s degree in physical education from LaCrosse University in 2002. LaCrosse is a on-line program based out of Bay St. Louis, Miss., that is not accredited by the state and other major accreditation agencies.
“This is highly unfortunate for Glynn and his family,” said long-time Oklahoma State head coach Eddie Sutton. “In the four years he coached here, Glynn did an exemplary job, both as a coach as well as a mentor who encouraged our players to obtain their degrees.”
Former UL Lafayette athletic director Terry Don Phillips was the athletic director at OSU when Cyprien was hired.
“When Nelson called me yesterday (Thursday), I was totally shocked, absolutely flabbergasted,” Phillips said. “Glynn is someone who I always held in very high regard, and I enjoyed being around him. We accepted what he said.”
His hiring there preceded the nationwide flap over George O’Leary’s resignation as head football coach at Notre Dame, after he admitted he lied about his academic and athletic background on his resume’.
Cyprien joined the UNLV staff in 1995 and coached there for five years, the last of those seasons as associate head coach. His biography page from that year’s media guide stated that he graduated from UTSA in 1990 and also played collegiately there, but UTSA’s basketball records have no listing of him as a player there.
He was at Jacksonville for two seasons in 1992-94 and at Western Kentucky for one season in 1991-92, both of those schools members of the Sun Belt Conference and UL Lafayette opponents at the time. At both places, he was an assistant coach under Matt Kilcullen.
Both of those schools’ media guides list him as receiving a bachelor’s degree from UTSA in 1989, one year earlier than the biographies at both UNLV and Oklahoma State.
Efforts to reach Kilcullen Friday were unsuccessful, but Kilcullen — now head coach at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville — gave a glowing recommendation when Cyprien was hired in early May.
“He is one of the best young coaches around,” Kilcullen said in a phone interview. “Recruiting was his main thing when he worked for me, but he also established himself as someone who could help young people reach their potential. He was someone who was a great liaison between the players and myself.”
Cyprien was on the Lamar staff for one year in 1990-91, and the first paragraph of his media guide biography there stated that he joined the Cardinal staff in June of 1990 after earning his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from UTSA in May.
But then-Lamar head coach Mike Newell said Friday that information wasn’t accurate.
“He was with me for a year at Lamar as a student assistant,” Newell said. “He was doing work to finish his degree at UTSA. To my knowledge, he was doing course work from UTSA at the time.
“I had just taken the Lamar job and (former UTSA head coach) Ken Burmeister had just been relieved, and he called me and said he had a young man who needed to finish his degree and was looking for a job. I don’t know if we called it part-time or not then, but he was basically a student assistant.”
Newell said that Cyprien didn’t start at Lamar until late in the summer because he was finishing up course work, and left in March to take the Jacksonville job.
“It totally shocks me,” Newell said when informed of Cyprien’s termination. “I had known him before, and I had kept up with him pretty well and talked to him on occasion. It hurts me to hear that.”
The Texas-San Antonio press guide from the 1988-89 season listed Cyprien as a part-time assistant coach, stating he was in his second season in that role and said that while completing his undergraduate studies he would assist in recruiting, scouting, film study, player academics and on-court practice sessions.
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gotta be one of the best post on here in a while. You think we should have let Cyprien get a pass on misrepresenting (okay lying) about the fact that he did not have a degree. That is unbelievable in it's own right since we are talking about an institution who's premise for existence is an education that is earned. 